Challenge of the Superfriend
by Centuri Eagle
Summary: Flash finally gets a date. The only question is: Will he survive? A JL Animated collaboration between fanfic author Onyx and Centuri Eagle
1. A Challenge from the Dark Knight

Summary: Flash finally gets a date, the only question is: Will he survive?

Author's Notes by Centuri Eagle: A character named **Onyx** is featured in this story along with plenty of helpful input by the fan fiction writer of the same name. 

When exchanging successive emails, fanfic author Onyx decided to loan me the use of her character to practice writing physical action sequences with. Being that I am a fan of Onyx's stories under the D.C. Superheroes category and being a lousy character creator myself I was glad to have the opportunity for collaboration with her. 

Disclaimer: **Onyx** is a creation of and solely owned by fanfic author **Onyx** (whereas every other character in this story is a copyright property of Warner Bros. and Detective Comics).

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The Challenge of the Superfriend

By Centuri Eagle and Onyx

Rated PG-13

Chapter 1 – A Challenge from the Dark Knight

"You are way too young." Batman directed this comment at the young woman in front of him. He had memorized all the details from the Oracle's database about her but seeing her in person was a different matter altogether. She was as strikingly beautiful as she was young and confident. Her name was Onyx and she claimed to want to join the Justice League.

"I'm not that much younger than Flash." Her green eyes glared back at him, refusing to be denied.

Batman grimaced at this information. Superman had brought this junior superhero into the Watchtower because the Man of Steel thought she showed promise. That meant she already had his vote of approval. If she had managed to get Flash to reveal his age she might already have won his favor as well.

"You also have too little experience. Even Flash had a reputation on his own before he joined." 

"You're just looking for reasons now. Any excuse to turn me down." Onyx maintained a calm and civil tone even if her words were petulant.

"Onyx," Batman began. "I don't need a reason to give you a thumbs down. It takes a unanimous vote of approval for a new member to join, and any of us can say no without any questions asked."

"Hmm…" Onyx looked more thoughtful for a moment before continuing. "Look, Batman. As you already know, I can change my shape just like J'onn can. I may have a lot more experience then your detective skills have been able to dredge up on me. It's just that I don't like publicity, and also due to the fact that I sometimes take on someone else's form. I do that to intimidate criminals who might otherwise not be frightened by me. Such as I am."

Onyx waved a delicately fingered hand in a gesture to indicate her lean feminine form. An evaluative glance at the prospective member led Batman to agree. Her jet-black hair pulled back into a tight ponytail and her athletic body spoke a certain amount of readiness and physical capability. However, an alluringly pretty girl with a good figure would deter no true evil doer from crime. At least, those qualities alone would not be enough.

"Alright, Onyx. Two last questions. One: Is _that_ your true form?"

"Humph. Next question." Onyx's response was quick and clearly beyond contention.

Batman was not totally surprised by this response. He realized that if she had gone to the trouble of maintaining a form other than her natural one to this point she probably would not bother to divulge that fact upon a simple inquiry. On the other hand, if the form she currently held was her real one, she would, of course, find such a question insulting. It was no big deal. He had other ways.

"Okay then. Number two. I suspect you take on people's appearances by reading their minds. What I want to know is this: Do you require a telepathic connection in order to obtain the powers and capabilities of the person as well?"

Batman could practically see the psychological drama unfolding behind the calm veneer of Onyx's tan features. Her bright green eyes looked down unblinkingly as she formulated an answer that would give the Dark Knight confidence in her veracity without divulging any weakness on her part. Batman smiled.

"I'll tell you what," he said before she could answer. He stood up and collected from the table the scattered papers of the file he had put together on her. "I will vote yes to letting you join if you can meet one challenge I have in mind for you. A sort of 'test' of your skills."

At that news Onyx could not resist telepathically probing Batman's brain to find out what kind of trial he was envisioning. When she saw what he was seeing she gave her definitive answer without hesitation.

"No problem, Sir," she said with youthful enthusiasm. "I agree. No problem. One thing though, Batman. You are going to have me take on Flash, right? I think in all honesty I should tell you that he asked me out on a date…like tomorrow night. It probably won't be much of a challenge if I go up against him. I mean he just might let me win…just to be a gentleman maybe."

Batman turned around to see that she was now standing too. She was taller than average height for a woman, but not yet quite as tall as Diana was. She had a good five or six inches on Hawkgirl. She was wearing a form fitting black jump suit made of a material that while it clung closely to her body, it seemed to allow her comfortable freedom of movement. That sense of style and functionality reminded him of a certain catwoman.

"Don't worry." said Batman. A wry smirk was becoming visible beneath his cowl.

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Later, Flash and Onyx met in the empty shuttle bay. The Javelin spacecraft had apparently been remotely piloted out and the entire space was empty. A line dividing the bay in half marked the floor. Across the line and at the far end of the giant room a shiny metal cylinder lay on the floor. Everything was just as it had appeared in Batman's mind. Flash walked over with the silly grin that was his trademark. He carried a metal hoop in one hand.

"Hey, Babe. Don't worry. You are in like flint. Me and bats play this game with all the hot shots who want to join up, but then none of them were hotties like you."

"Um, that's okay, Flash," Onyx protested. "You just stick with whatever you normally do. I'll just earn my place on the team like everyone else. You don't have to pull any punches for me."

"Hey, don't worry, honeybunch." Flash put an arm around Onyx's shoulder. "I'll make it look authentic. No one will be any the wiser…"

"No. Really, Flash, I…" Onyx again tried to convince him of her sincere wish to accomplish the challenge legitimately. Her words were cut off by an interruption from Batman.

"Alright. I believe you two have already met so I will skip introductions." Batman was addressing them by loudspeaker. They could see him talking into a microphone while looking down on them from an observation deck that overlooked the shuttle bay.

"Onyx, I think you know what this about," Batman's amplified voice began in explanation. "But to be fair I will explain the rules. It is simple. It is basically capture the flag. The flag in this case is the metal capsule you see at the far end of the bay near the hangar doors. To get into the spirit of this test you may wish to pretend that the capsule contains something the rest of Justice League needs to continue a mission. It might be Green Lantern's power battery, Wonder Woman's lasso, or…"

"…Or Batman's Viagra." Flash quipped while imitating Batman's overly dramatic tone. 

Onyx laughed.

"Flash will be defending the 'flag' from you, Onyx." Batman continued "He will prevent you from getting the capsule by any means necessary. Once you cross the line, Onyx, you are in his territory, and then he can do whatever he needs or wants in order to stop you. You have just sixty seconds to get the flag back over to your side of the line, Onyx. Any questions?"

"No," chimed in Onyx quickly. "Sixty seconds to glory."

"There is just one more thing, Onyx" Batman's voice now took on a more matter-of-fact tone. "Flash will be wearing a head band that a gorilla named Solovar gave us. I will be wearing a mind control helmet that I picked up from a Gorilla named Grodd. I have modified the two devices sufficiently so that the headband on Flash will prevent you from tapping his mind telepathically while allowing me to motivate him sufficiently with this mind control helmet."

Onyx looked up at the observation deck and saw that Batman was indeed putting some kind of open faced helmet over top of his usual mask cowl.

"Are you ready?" Batman asked.

Onyx sighed to herself and wondered why she had not detected this part of the plan in her previous telepathic inspection of Batman's brain.

"Yes. I'm ready," she said.

"Good. Flash get over on your side of the line and put on the head band."

"Okey-dokey artichokey." jibed Flash.

Flash stepped over the line and looked at Onyx. 

"Don't worry, Babe. Even with this thing on I would never hurt…"

The second Flash put the headband on his eyes and face went blank. Onyx tried to probe his mind but she got the mental equivalent of white noise. It was like trying to read Braille with gloves on. 

Batman's voice boomed over the loud speaker.

"Onyx, your sixty seconds begins…now. Flash, stop her at all cost!"


	2. The Claws of Victory

The Challenge of the Superfriend

By Centuri Eagle and Onyx

Rated PG-13

Chapter 2 – The Claws of Victory 

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"Wait a sec, Flash," cried Onyx. She held up one hand, and looking down, reached for her foot with the other. "My shoe is untied."

"Uh, Okay." Flash cocked his head. He could have sworn that the lithe girl had been wearing leather boots when she came into the bay, but looking down at her kneeling form he could see she was indeed wearing track shoes. How had he missed that before?

"Don't be so stupid, Flash!" Batman's voiced intoned. 

"What?" Flash looked up at the observation booth to see Batman pointing vigorously back at floor of the hangar bay where the two competitors were. When Flash looked down again his opponent was gone and all he could see was a long gray-haired tail disappearing between his own red clad legs.

He turned around to see Onyx in the form of a sinewy greyhound streaking towards the metal capsule that was her objective. The crafty shape shifter had changed herself in the instant he had been distracted and taken off between his legs. 

If this had been any other man this ruse would have been all she would have needed, but even before Onyx had reached a greyhound's top speed Flash was in front of her again. In an instant he was in a low stance with both hands up, and he was there and in that position before Onyx could dodge him or even slow down. Flash took the girl posing as dog in both hands and flung her back down the bay and across the line. 

She hit the far wall with a solid thud. By the time her body had rebounded and hit the ground she had transformed back into her familiar nubile form again. Her tight black suit still clung neatly to her body, but her face bore the look of rumpled frustration and a little bit of hurt pride. She massaged her shoulder as she approached the demarcation line again.

"Damn it, Flash!" she looked with frustration at the red garbed superhero who stood across the line with his hands crossed over his chest.

"Forget it, Onyx, he doesn't know you." Batman stood leaned against the observation room glass in raw anticipation of what the metamorphic super human would change into next. "You will have to do better than that. You have forty-five seconds left."

Even as he spoke these words Onyx's shape began to blur and change. She grew slightly in height and size as her color changed drastically. When she began to take form again she was wearing bright red. She had managed to do what Batman thought she could not. There were now two Flashes standing on the hangar bay floor.

"Hi ya, buddy!" said the Flash who had lately been Onyx. No sooner had he/she said that than the newly transformed Onyx took off for the capsule again. However, no matter how strange it might have been for the true crimson streak to have to confront himself in the flesh, he recovered quickly and cut the impostor off. 

The real Flash's imposition forced the fake Flash to make an abrupt ninety-degree turn from her intended course. The resulting zipping back and forth of the two Flashes became nothing but a double streaked red blur across the width of the bay. Batman shook his head in amusement.

"Flash," came Batman's amplified voice. "Push her back."

Flash, the original, grabbed Flash, the duplicate copy, by the arm and flung him/her back across the line and towards the opposite wall of the hangar bay. Onyx's body reappeared as she found herself catapulted through the air a second time. Before she arrived at the bulkhead, however, her form began to blur and change again. 

She hit the wall with both naked feet flat on the vertical surface. She sprung off the bulkhead with an inhuman force that propelled her back at the body of her thrower. Flash looked up in surprise to see the huge hulking form of an enormous brown Gorilla rocketing toward him.

"Oh my, God," was all he could exclaim as a gigantic simian fist connected with his red facemask.

Flash fell backwards hard as the large fanged jungle beast galloped past him, hands and feet working together rapidly to push the mammoth form towards the small metal cylinder that was its aim. 

"You mean, 'Oh my Grodd,'" quipped the image of Flash's number one nemesis. With out looking back the same creature snarled, "Or have you forgotten me?"

Onyx/Grodd had just arrived at the capsule and was reaching out a hairy primate paw to grab it when she felt her hand like feet stumble over something. Had she looked down she would have seen the extended leg of flash intertwined with her own muscular ape-like ones.

She fell face first to the floor and slid head long into the steel hangar doors with a resounding smack.

"Nope, I didn't forget," said Flash cheerily. Onyx's own fleshy ears listened to the self-satisfied voice. "Did _you_ forget I am the fastest man alive?"

Onyx's head ached as she clutched at her bruised and battered skull. She remained crumpled on the floor, and was not going to bother to get up until she heard Batman's unsympathetic warning blasting into her head from the loud speakers. 

"Onyx. It will take more than speed and or strength to get past Flash. He is a seasoned superhero now, and you…you're just an inexperienced upstart. You have just fifteen seconds left before you fail the challenge."

Her mind reeled with rage. Before, she had merely wanted to join the group that she had worshipped from afar. To attain respect and comradeship of this group of superheroes…no superfriends had been a long time dream of hers. She had believed that she belonged among them. She had thought that they would welcome her. Now, she was being treated like a rank amateur who could be dismissed and pushed aside like some clownish wanna-be.

She looked for something, anything that would take her to another level. She no longer cared about joining; she just wanted to avoid losing in humiliation. Her mind clawed for something to fix on. Flash's mind was no longer an option. Batman's, however, was still an open source. She had to find something or some combination of somethings to get around and past Flash.

She could hear Batman's mind telling her it was no good; that he knew of no one who was faster than Flash in the long run. 

"How about in the short run?" her mind inquired back. 

Batman's disciplined psyche tried to cut her off and leave her with a blank.

Onyx made her decision. Her relatively small lithe form suddenly morphed into a large black one. 

Before Flash's very eyes a black horse reared up on it hind legs. It had broad raven colored wings sprouting from its back, a golden spiraled horn in the middle of its forehead, and it had the bright jade green eyes of the girl who had been balled up before him not a second ago. 

Flash could do no more in that instant than stumble backward in awe of the black winged unicorn that was now jabbing at him with her rough forehooves. When he had fallen back just enough, Onyx made her second startling transformation. 

This time she was a yellow streak of light half way to the capsule before Flash could recover. When he saw who she was now, he was appropriately worried. She was now the supervillainess known as the Cheetah. She was now part human and part wild cat in one nefariously rapid body. She had reached and picked up the capsule before he could even intercept her.

"Flash, stop Cheetah! Cut her off!" came Batman's shouted commands.

It was to no avail. In a straight run, Flash had Cheetah cold. However, at a short distance, and with maneuvering involved, the transformed Onyx was now an ephemeral force. Now, no matter how Flash tried to grab at her or the capsule or tried to block her, the fearsome spotted feline woman just pirouetted out of the way. To Batman's eyes it was just a red streak and yellow streak zigzagging in a jagged course towards the dividing line that marked the middle of the cavernous room. 

It seemed the yellow streak was about to reach its goal-less than a meter from the line-when Batman heard a blood-curdling scream. He looked down from the observation booth to see that Flash was holding the Onyx-in the form of Cheetah-by the tail. Her furry outstretched form was being held inches from the line by Flash's grasp of her long yellow tail.

What Batman could now see, as well as hear, was that having a cat by its tail was indeed agony for the hapless creature. This had truly become a challenge worth of the name. The Onyx/Cheetah howled in pain.

"Five seconds, Onyx," Batman calmly advised from the safety of the reinforced glass overhanging booth. "Don't let her go Flash! Four…three…"

Onyx was beyond caring now and she was also in severe agony. What happened next was virtually pure instinct.

"Let go of my tail!" she spat out in teary-eyed distress. 

With that a clawed hind paw lashed out at Flash and caught him at mid thigh. With the tearing and ripping of his flesh and uniform Flash finally let go as he screamed out in discomfort himself.

Being released from Flash's grip, the fur covered form of the Cheetah cum Onyx stumbled over the line and crashed yet again into one of the walls of the hangar bay.

"…Zero." Batman's final enumeration was escaping from his lips even as the returned shape of the super girl known as Onyx was slumping to the floor. The cylindrical capsule rolled out of her hands.

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Onyx gasped for breath and rubbed her tailbone as she sat reclining against the hangar bay bulkhead. Batman was in the middle of the bay applying a pressure dressing to Flash's mangled leg. He helped Flash up, and with one arm over his shoulder, half carried the wounded superhero towards the access door next to where Onyx lay. Onyx jumped up in near fright when she saw the blood soaked bandages.

"Oh my god, Flash! Are you all right? My gosh, Batman. Is it bad? Is it deep? I can help. I'm a trained medic." 

"I've seen worse, Onyx," Batman informed her casually. "He'll be alright. Don't worry you won fair and square. You have my vote." Batman seemed almost pleased with the results of his little experiment despite its bloody aftermath.

"Well, she doesn't have mine!" Flash shouted through clenched teeth.

"…But Flash!" Onyx protested in dismay.

"You almost killed me!" Flash grimaced through the pain. "Augh! Look at my beautiful leg! Get me to the medi-bay! Get me a surgeon! Owwww!"

"But what about our date?" 

"I'm not going anywhere with you, you-psycho-shape-changing-woman-you. What am I going to do? Dance in a wheel chair? Get me out of here, Bats."

Batman looked back at her consolingly as he helped Flash down the corridor.

"Often, that is just the way it goes, Onyx. Sometimes there is no way to win. Don't worry. Flash heals very fast." 

Batman and Flash disappeared down the corridor. Onyx walked herself back up to the control room.


End file.
